iTunes ringtones service goes live

We all knew this one was coming soon, we just weren’t sure when. Ever the calming presence, Apple has decided to quell the doubters, sedate the masses, and kick the nay-sayers solidly in the teeth. The company took their new ringtone service live this evening with little fanfare. The service was a bit buried under several layers of iTunes menus, but rest assured…it’s here now. Selecting a pre-purchased song, navigating to the Store menu, and selecting the Create Ringtone option takes you through several legal notifications before bringing up the Ringtone wave editor popup in the bottom of the iTunes window. It doesn’t seem to work with all purchased songs, so we’re guessing that not all labels have jumped onboard yet. We are certain though, that this will be of great use to anyone growing tired of the “Marimba” ringtone.

Tip: connecting an iPhone brings up a dialog box that asks if you’d like iTunes to check and see which currently synced songs are available as ringtones. Nice!

“If paying for ringtone snippets of the songs you already own is your idea of a good time, then get on over to iTunes trust funders, Apple’s now serving up ringtones at $1.98 a pop. But they’re only $0.99 you say? Nope, remember, you have to buy the rights to the song too. Fun. Keep it safe, kids.”

Apple: the only Cellphone manufacturer in the world that charges the consumers extra money to use a song THEY ALREADY OWN as a ringtone.

http://www.turbovions.com Mr. Opportunist

AT:

Not true, every service provider that charges for ringtones is also charging you for a snipet of a song that you already own. You are only looking at it differently in this aspect because both are controlled by itunes. If you own a sidekick for example; you have purchased a song via itunes for your computer but you want the ringtone of it on your sidekick you must pay t-mobile what they are charging for the ringtone in the catalog. This being said your point is invalid because in fact all carriers charge for ringtones only in this case it is the manufacture charging rather than the carier.

Galvatron

every carrier yes not every hardware manufacture RIM let’syou load .mp3 and.WMA formats on your blackberries memory/micro sd card play em like a media player an lets you use those files as ringtones. OH and geuss what? IT’S FREE
Im with AT on tis all who buy into the itunes crap are as Mr.T would put it are SUCKAS

AT

You are missing the point. Or rather you don’t want to see it.

Of course anyone can charge for ringtones. Just like restaurants charge for food; does that mean you can’t cook at home? Of course not.

My point is (apparently shared by the engadget crew): If I have an MP3 of a song I can use it as a ringtone on my nokia E90 (and all the phones on the market work like that); now if I don’t own the song…I can go ahead and buy the ringtone from whomever sells it.

On the iPhone if I own an MP3 i can’t use it as a ringtone because Apple prevents me from doing so, forcing me to buy the ringtone EVEN if I alread have the song. I don’t have a choice the hardware is locked in such a way.

Clear enough?

test5477

if you don’t like it then don’t use it but quit whining

http://www.turbovions.com Mr. Opportunist

Galvatron:

There is no difference in this case between the “carier” and “manufacture” because Apple handles more aspects than AT&T does. Just like how they used itunes to activate the phone it was not done by AT&T. Like I stated before this is no different than if AT&T would be charging for the ringtones. If it was AT&T charging for them rather than Apple this conversion would not be taking place because you would have nothing to complain about.

AT:

There is nothing to clarify. This is just like many other phones but they are not held to the standard that the iphone is held to. If you do some research you will see this. Rather than down talk one manufacture you should look into others and see that they are not the only ones that restrict you from using already purchased mp3’s as ringtones.

/story

AT

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, Palm, Rim allow you to use mp3s for ringtone on their last gen phones. Motorola has a wierd policy, if the mp3 is on internal memory it works, if it’s on external memory it won’t.

I think we covered 90% of the cell phone market.

On my book the iPhone is held to:
1) the standards declared by Apple: “2 years ahead of the competition”;
2) price based comparison with other phones (aka 599$ untill last week, 399$ now). Therefore Nokia N95, Kaiser and Nokia E90.

Galvatron

correct AT i think the apple fanboys just don”t want to admit they are being taken becaus the love and fear for their PIMP steve greenbacks jobs is so great they are afraid of being slapped

jose

Steve is an ass for doing this. Any cell lets you make what ever song you want a ringtone for free. Apple of course has to make a buck…and 98 cents. This is just another reason why I will never own an iphone.

UnseenLlama

Not to defend Apple, but if you bought a ringtone from a carrier, that would be $3 plus any data charges to download (let’s say an additional dollar). That’s $4 just for a 30 second clip. Now with iTunes, you get the entire song and the ability to create the 30 second clip for $2. I can see a value in charging that $2 on iTunes if I didn’t already own the music AND the ringtone.

Otherwise I agree with Galvatron and AT. I should be able to put a ringtone that I already own on my phone for free.

If you can afford $599, $499, $399 or $299 for an iPhone a $1.98 isn’t going to break the bank. Its better the $2.50 or $2.99 from the providers…

http://att.com Ryan Curtis

boys….i work for att. i see the truth…..2.49 for a 20 second snip with no full mp3 ownership (DRM or not) to accompany it. For the cell phone industry this is so fair it sounds absolutely ridiculous to hear you all whine…..if you are smart enough to put an illegal mp3 on your blackberry then do it! I did it for a long time. I even did it on my Iphone but this gives 90% of users, who are not as smart as the pricks on this comments sections, a terrific opportunity to make some fun ringtones.

Hate Apple. but they do a great job of making features easy to use (how many people have ever opened audacity or garage band and made their own mp3s)????

J

You have to love the Apple apologists, eJay especially. Do you not understand that the vast majority of media capable “smart phones” (I use the term loosely for Apple’s offering) allow you to take an MP3 you already own and set it as a ringtone? Without paying $2.50 or $2.99 from the carriers? Why can’t you just admit that this is a dick move on Apple’s part? Oh right, “screw ringtones”. Screw 3G. Screw real push email. Screw everything that Apple doesn’t include in their handset. After all, if Steve Jobs hasn’t deemed it important it must not be, right?

It’s like a bunch of lemmings, talking away on their iPhones as they walk off of cliffs.

http://att.com Ryan Curtis

actually i really miss the push email my curve had. and i wish i had 3g. but i am way more happy with this phone than my bb curve. and that says a lot.

everyone is always on the attack. bottom line is that some people dont OWN the cd to the song they want to make their ringtone. why is this method so bad? it certainly seems easy. this phone is EASY to use. Other than the initial syncing this phone is the easiest phone we sell at Att. I am not being an apple apologist.

Gosh people are always on the attack. slow down. i am just saying people make it sound like everything about this method is a montreal screwjob.

Hoax Meister

Three new torture methods invented by Apple:
1. Early adopter screw. Adopt our product early and get screwed by overly high prices.
2. Late adopter screw. Adopt our product late, pay a high price, and watch as we release a device ten times better for the same price you just paid.
3. Death of the thousand 99 cent cuts.

test5477

You have to love the anti-Apple fanboys who want everything to be like their other devices. They love the”if the rest of the world does it then apple must do it also” sorry but business is business. Again all the whining but no one forces you to buy anything, if the choice is not for you then dont make it.

The whole lemmings thing is funny now because I actually think there are as many anti-apple lemmings as their are pro apple.

I am not saying that this is the way it should be, I think its wrong as well, but its naive to say its 100% apples fault why they are charging, and if you dont see that then you are in fact an Anti-Apple Fanboy as your not looking at the facts about Apple’s situation.

eJay

How could you say the iPhone isnt a “smartphone” I mean come on, the stuff they pass off as so called smart phones with Windows Mobile devices? And I only say screw it to ringtones because:

A) I wont be paying for them even if I want them
B) I only like regular rings, not music for my “ring” tones. Just my preference.

Ross

What I find funny is the amount of venom those who don’t have iPhones have for the device. Okay, we get it – you hate Apple/Jobs/paying for ringtones. Great, good, got it. Who cares?

J: It’s not about “screw this” or “screw that”, it’s about being an adult and making a decision to purchase a product based on your needs and wants. Clearly the iPhone meets that for those of us who bought it. We determine if what the phone does right outweighs its shortcomings. The answer is yes, for myself and apparently a million other folks (thus far).

I’m not an Apple “fanboy”, I don’t own any other Apple products. In fact, I switched over from a BlackBerry because guess what? Push email is nice, but unless your email is time sensitive who gives a crap? I didn’t need it, and I got tired of RIM doling out features one phone at a time. So you know what? As an adult I decided that the iPhone met my needs in a more comprehensive manner than my BlackBerry did. That’s how this works.

All the bluster about lemmings and fanboys just comes across as kids trying to “prove” that their toy is better than someone else’s toy. Grow up. I don’t sweat the cost of a ringtone because I’m an adult (there’s that word again!) and either I want it and willing to pay for the service or I don’t. Either way, the phone offered is the one I bought, so I’m not going to complain about the things it doesn’t have.

You and Galvatron sound like sheep, BAAAAAHing about your disdain for the iPhone every chance you get. Galvatron is barely literate, so score one for your side, eh?

Bottom line – get over yourself. You don’t like the product, don’t buy it. That’s how this works.

Galvatron

No I believe in the old prverb you give a man a fish he eats for a day you teach a man to fish you feed him fore al life time. The reson why I I hate apple in try to knok some sense in to them is apple want to keep selling you fish but dosn’t wnat to teach you how to catch him. An they lock down the hae hardware wores than verizon. Even hackers who us macbook pros an kismac do not like the idea of OSX thelling them what they can’t do so they hack the Os toi shreds an or use linux.

The point is apple ineveitably shot them selves in the foot when they created itunes with the propitary format. Not onlyy are you a slave to apple your a slave to the labels which apple is a slave to already.

Even M$ let’s you run .mp3’s in adition to the .wma even on thso s locked phones ala moraola there is 3rd party software that let’s you port ringtones an wall papers form you old device store it on a computer temporally an load it onto your new phone.

Even the iphoin hacker crowd has developed methods t load ringtones they make themselves to load on the beloved ibrick.

But if the term “ignorance is bliss” aplies to you don’t come whinning to us that steve jobs tool all your money.

test5477

I agree with EJay, my own preference is for Rings/Sounds rather than songs.

Gal, B for spelling (at least you tried this time), F for content.

I think your mistake is thinking that everyone wants to be a hacker or spend alot of time on their computer. Any alternative to what you like you bash.

As has been said so many times, if you dont want it dont buy it.

Ross

Galvatron:

I’m not a 15 year old girl, I don’t need a different ringtone for each hour of the day, or the ability to download Frogger so I have something to do while waiting for a friend’s text message. So, no, I won’t be getting upset that Jobs “tool” my money. I chose to spend it on what I spent it on, and as test said not all of us are hacker dorks who need to be in front of pc all day trying to figure out how to make a Kelly Clarkson song our ringtone.

Thanks for your concern all the same! :)

eJay

What are you talking about? Im just saying I dont care about the ringtones. I HAVE AN iPhone, and LOVE the iPhone. Im just saying that I dont care that much about ringtones

See this is one of the only problems I have between WM5/6/whatever and MAC OS…. is that with winmo I can just go over a song hit menu set as ringtone and there’s some moving but it’s free, unlike the iPhone I am contemplating buying, where I have to pay for them. Not like they’re expensive, but still I could spend that $0.99 on another song from iTunes or have more “money in the bank.”

Grace

I have to agree with what many said, 1) it’s cheaper than most ringtones I purchased for my motorola. 2) You’re getting a whole song and for me personally if I like it enough to hear it on my phone I’d want the entire song anyway so I’m only paying .99 cents for a ringtone without taking the time to dig through my CD’s, use one program to upload the song, another to clip the song, and possibly another to convert the format. So for me it’s not paying two bucks for a ringtone. It’s paying for the convenience. And as a working mom with kids, a husband and a home to take care of, a couple clicks to customize my phone is nice.

I do have some beef with the situation but it’s a new feature and hopefully my favorite songs will become available later on. Sure I can’t utilize other software to create ringtones from songs I already on but this is Apple’s policy and if I want the product I agree to play by the manufacturer’s rules. If I don’t like the rules enough, then I don’t buy it. There are a million products in this world that work the same way.